Burnham on Crouch Railway Station, May 2018. © Nick Skeens.

Burnham on Crouch railway station is the penultimate stop on the Crouch Valley Line, which terminates at Southminster.

It has a cafe that is open in the mornings.

The ticket office is usually open from 8 to 11am on weekdays.

You can check the train times and book tickets, by clicking here.

It is just over 43 miles as the train trundles from Burnham on Crouch to London Liverpool Street (via Wickford).

In rush hour the trains are direct and take about an hour to make the journey.

The views, especially between Althorne and South Woodham Ferrers, are really beautiful, especially at high tide when the saltmarsh is flooded.

The Station House is owned and run by the Town Council.


History

The station, and indeed, the entire branch line, was opened for goods by the Great Eastern Railway on 1 June 1889. 4 months later passenger services began.

Back then the station had 2 platforms and 2 station buildings connected by a footbridge. There was even a sidings and a goods shed to the west of the station (in the direction of Althorne).

The London and North Eastern Railway took over from Great Estern in 1923.  The Eastern Region of British Railways took it over 1948, then Network SouthEast, before being privatised by British Rail. Finally Great Anglia took control and runs it today.

In January 1967, the 24-lever signal box on the north side of the track to the west of the station was closed down. The north platform was closed by 1969.

The line was electrified in May 1986, using 25kV overhead line.


Railway Museum

Burnham has a Railway Museum. Click here for more.


The Secret Train

The line survived the infamous Beeching cuts to rural routes because it was used, until recently, to carry radio-active waste away from Bradwell Nuclear Power Station. The nuclear flasks were taken out of the power station by road, driven to Southminster and put on a special train.

Locals found it curious that the Thursday train around midday was never put on the timetable – this is because it was a ‘secret train’ carrying nuclear waste…

Widespread rumours that people standing on the Railway Bridge with geiger counters saw their needles whip round as the train passed beneath them have never been substantiated and are dismissed by workers at the power station as ‘rubbish’.